[Cactus Jack]

Something we should keep in mind: the concept of a conference championship is changing, and with the new "Super Conferences", it's only going to continue to get worse. When I was doing research on which teams had the most conference tournament championships, I was shocked to learn that UCLA had almost 3x as many national championships as they do conference tournament championships (11 to 4). Now, there were a lot of years they just didn't have a conference tournament and plenty of others where an Oregon or Arizona won it, but still.

The SEC only went to 12 teams in 1990. Before that, it was fewer teams and Kentucky getting a higher seed meant a lot more. Since the tournament expanded in 1985, we'd usually be the #1 and the conference was far more watered down from top to bottom-- at best, the four or five seed (who we'd meet in the semis might) be an eight seed or higher. Now, we're getting the same type of seed in the round of eight.

From 1991to 1998, Kentucky won seven of eight championships. Since, we've had another run where we won four straight. But during this time, Florida won two national titles, Missouri and Texas A&M joined the conference, and the rest of the league started an arms race by hiring better coaches as athletic department's budgets grew from the football money that was rolling in.

With the addition of Texas and Oklahoma (who've both been to a Final Four in recent memory), these chances to get upset early in the tournament are only going to grow.

All of this to say that, while I think Cal's recent performance in both the SEC and NCAA Tournament is wholly unacceptable, the era of a Kentucky dominating the SEC Tournament like UCLA dominated the NCAA Tournament during their heyday are probably gone, never to return again under the current structure.